Bisous

What: Hershey's Kisses with Cherry Cordial Flavoured Creme
Where: Toronto
Cost: $1.49

I love holidays that are celebrated with candy. It isn't necessary, but sometimes I enjoy having an actual reason to indulge my sweet teeth.

And then there are the sales.

Scrounging through discount bins full of limited edition holiday candy is one of my favourite pastimes.

I wandered in to a Sobey's near my work a few days ago and was rewarded with a heavily-discounted package of Hershey's Kisses, filled with cherry cordial flavoured creme*.

Other than a splash of lime cordial in my club soda now and then (vodka optional) I associate cordial with Anne of Green Gables. I remember very clearly the way my 9-year old self thought raspberry cordial might taste - syrupy sweet and potently fruity. I think I was expecting the filling to taste similar to that imagined cordial, but perhaps more cherry-like.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't.

What was more surprising was the fact that it barely tasted like cherry anything. Far from a chocolate-covered cherry (they are filled with cherry cordial and I assume that this is what Hershey's was aiming for) it was mostly just very sweet and vaguely coconutty.

Definitely not something you could confuse with currant wine.

7.1/10

HR

*I've said it before, but I have an irrational hatred of the word "creme". I have even gone so far as to change my foster cat's name from "Creme Brulee" to "Steve". He hasn't noticed yet.

Olympic Dough Rings

Can anyone tell me why sprinkle donuts used to be called "Hawaiian"?

If you live in Canada I'm sure you have seen these donuts in every Tim Horton's. Basia bought this one for me somewhere last week.

Eight years ago when they announced that the Olympics would be in Vancouver (my hometown) I assumed I would be back there by 2010. But here I am still in Ontario, without even a TV to watch it on.

But I ate that donut.

And I enjoyed it, although I wish the sprinkles were maple-flavoured. Or even just sugar-flavoured. What kind of sprinkles have zero taste?

Go Canada!

HR

What do you call a bear with no teeth?

What: Chocolate-Covered Gummy Bears
Where: Peterborough, ON
Cost: ~$3

I was fortunate enough to play a few shows with the lovely Basia this week. We arrived in Peterborough a few hours early on Wednesday, so I wandered around a bit to see what the city had to offer.

To my surprise and delight, there was a large candy store just around the corner from the venue.

Amongst the (too) expensive imported British chocolate and limited edition Star Trek Pez dispensers I hit the jackpot with these gummy bears.

Although I have never tried chocolate-covered gummy bears before, I was fairly certain I would like them.

I love gummy bears. Haribo Gold-Bears are my favourites, but I have never eaten a bear-shaped candy that I didn't like. Also, I have been saving up money over the last few months to buy a five-pound gummy bear.

I am not joking.

In case of emergency candy/chocolate cravings I always seem to have secreted* a Big Turk within arm's reach somewhere. These bears were basically adorable, bite-sized versions of that chocolate bar.

The reaction backstage was mixed (and may have involved much singing of the Gummi Bears theme song), but I loved them.

9.7/10

I'm curious to see what sugary secrets Hamilton might hold tomorrow. Sadly, we will be without our friends and recent touring pals, the Luyas, but check out their blog to see the non-candy related fun that goes on offstage.

HR

*by "secreted" I mean "hidden", not "synthesized and discharged from specialized glands". But one can always hope...

Cream-Coloured Ponies

What: Homemade Cinnamon Gumdrops

To cure boredom at work the other day I ordered some Spearmint and Cinnamon oils online.

They arrived at my house a few days ago nestled in a little box full of packing peanuts. The enclosed invoice informed me that these peanuts were not styrofoam and were instead made of vegetable starches. To get rid of them they can be dissolved in water and poured down the drain, or put out with the household compost.

I licked one to see how it tasted* and sure enough it immediately started dissolving.

The adorable little bottles were one fluid dram (3/4 of a teaspoon). It sounds small, but it is more than enough to make a lot of gumdrops. So I did.

I have never made candy before so I was nervous that I would burn my pots or set the kitchen on fire, but it was actually very straight forward and easy. All you need is a heavy-bottomed saucepan and a candy thermometer and you are on the road to Gumdrop City.

After letting the gumdrop mixture set overnight I sliced them into squares and coated them liberally with sugar. One recipe made so many (~65 gumdrops) that I wish I had separated it and made half cinnamon and half spearmint, but other than that they turned out beautifully.

They held their shape well without being rubbery. The cinnamon oil was potent and I still have enough for 4 or 5 more batches. Hopefully I can enlist an assistant to take some pictures of the actual cooking process next time.

Gumdrops are one of my all time favourite candies. Now that I know how easy they are to make I want to make lots more. These get bonus points for also being vegan. My friends will never have to eat stale corner store candies again...

HR

*starchy

It's That Time of Year...

What: Peppermint Pig
Where it's from: New York
Cost: Unknown (Purchased by Basia)

My neighbours put up their Christmas lights today. Although it has yet to snow in Toronto, it has become impossible to ignore the fact that winter and the Christmas season are soon to be upon us. I just moved into this neighbourhood, and in the course of unpacking I found a treasure trove of forgotten treats randomly tossed into boxes many months ago. This pig was given to me by the lovely Basia after she played a few shows in New York last fall.

I was a bit puzzled by such a large hard candy, since it would be difficult to eat. Let's be honest: no one really likes jaw breakers. They get sticky and take forever to finish. The pig was very cute but seemed impractical. I looked into it a bit and discovered that what I had was a Peppermint Pig, most likely made in Saratoga Springs, NY.

A small company called Saratoga Sweets has revived an old tradition from that area. Families would purchase a candy pig around Christmastime and pass it around from person to person at their holiday dinner. Each guest would give it a tap with a little mallet and tell a happy story from the previous year.

I had neither the traditional body velvet bag to put the pig in nor any company, so after one last look at his little sad face I unceremoniously dumped him in a plastic bag and smashed him to bits with the smallest hammer I could find.

When I finished waking up the neighbours with my hammering I carefully poured the shards into a bowl and selected the choicest piece. I believe it was the rump.

Remember when I said that I'd had it since last year? Well, it tasted just like a year-old candy cane. Pleasantly pepperminty, but with that odd chewy-crunchy texture of aged candy. I have to admit that I have eaten many stale candy canes in my time and quite like it, so it was not a problem for me.

The rest of the candy carcass has joined the other "bowls of temptation" on my counter. If there are any bits left in a week or so I will mix them into some melted white chocolate to make pepto-bismol-coloured Santa Bark.

Any tradition that involves eating candy and sharing stories with loved ones is a tradition I'm willing to adopt.

Especially if it inspires a song like this one:



9.4/10

In other news...

I have set up a twitter account which you can follow if you want to find out when new posts go up and other little tidbits.

It feels good to write again.

HR

At my door the leaves are falling...

So...

I may not have posted anything for the last year or so but I have continued to eat weird foods and have resolved to begin writing about it again. So please check back soon to learn about peppermint pigs, limited edition chocolate bars and whatever new things my touring friends bring back from their travels.

And since I am semi-permanently based in Toronto I am going to try to make a few of the treats I have enjoyed.

Happy eating!

HR

Furtive Pickles

What: Van Holten's Kosher Pickle
When: July 11th
Where: Winnipeg
Cost: $1.29

While going through security at the airport yesterday the guard held open my purse and asked if I had a drink or something inside. Before checking in I had done a quick perusal of the contents of my (admittedly huge and over-stuffed) bag and didn't find any bottles, so I peered past her hands to see what she was talking about.

"Oh, no." I said, "I'm sorry, it's just a pickle."

But not just any pickle. A huge, mutant pickle, floating in brine inside a plastic pouch like an embalmed cucumber fetus. I kept seeing them in gas stations across America but was always inevitably stopped from buying one by disapproving band members.

Once, while perusing the gargantuan pickle selection I looked up to see Bobby just silently shaking his head at me. When Allison would catch me lingering too long in the pickle aisle she would yell, "Don't buy it, you know what it's going to taste like!"

But eventually I couldn't resist the allure of the monster pickle, so I snuck into a gas station sometime near the end of our last American tour and secretly bought the biggest pickle I could find.

For some unknown reason I didn't eat the pickle right away. Instead I carried it around with me like a hidden talisman, all the way back to London and then onto an airplane headed for Winnipeg. Alas, I feared my garlicky good luck charm would not last another trip, so I was forced to eat it this afternoon.

I broke open the pouch, poured out the juice with only a small amount of spillage, and took a big bite. It tasted like a pickle.

A pickle that had been softened by the insides of my purse and the disgusted but tender proddings of an airport security agent. The skin was extremely tough and leathery and the whole thing reminded me of a regular pickle that had somehow escaped being eaten and been left to grow into its natural old age.

Thus ends my brief infatuation with gas station pickles and begins yet another round of dining on questionable convenience store food. We are without our van for all these upcoming festival dates (and therefore will not be frequenting many gas stations) but I will do my best to sample the finest oddities Winnipeg, Dawson City and Calgary have to offer.

3.2/10

HR